Coolfans

Since creating this reviews blog, I've loved the opportunities I've had for discovering fabulous new and innovative child and baby products that have been invented by real parents - things that make me yell "Yes ! That's exactly what I need ! Why has nobody invented this before now ?!" Well, as soon as I saw the Coolfans website, I giggled and said "That's got to be another product created by a real parent". And I was right again !


I love the story of how the Coolfans came to be. As the creator explains on the Coolfans website, "So here I am again – standing outside the kitchen door blowing on my daughter’s hot food. My daughter Beth had just turned 9 months and as protective parents we had overheated her food again thinking it will kill any bacteria that might be present. Of course I was regretting it now, stood out in the cold blowing until I was red in the face while an impatient daughter cried inside. Surely there must be some kind of food cooling device on the market I thought; they have all sorts of baby gadgets - the majority of which we already seemed to own." When he couldn't find one, he made his own, using Meccano and Sellotape !

Well, the finished product you see today has come a long way. The designs are ultra cute and the girls loved the funky colours too. Since they come in a range of colours and faces, you could save dinnertime squabbles by choosing one per child. I love the fact that it helps you multitask, avoiding some of that inevitable mealtime chaos when you're busy desperately trying to feed hungry baby who's crying because his food is too hot for you to give it to him while the elder children are asking you to serve them some more pasta and cut up their meat - oh and it might be quite nice if you could actually shovel a forkful or two down your own throat while it's still hot, come to think of it !

The website also explains that blowing on your child's food is a bit of a health hazard. "During my research I read how bacteria via saliva can be transferred from parent to baby from blowing on food. Talking to a neighbour who was a care worker I found that it was common practice in nursing homes to not blow on food in order to prevent any unnecessary cross contamination. A Japanese article even claimed that tooth decay could be transferred in the same way ! So not only would a cooling device be a quick way of chilling food it would also be a hygienic method." Well, if you've got a cold or other infectious illness, I can well believe you might pass the germs around but generations of mums and dads have blown on their kids' food so I admit I'm not going to worry overly about that aspect.
At the moment, we're eating lots of salads and cold food because it's so hot so we don't need the Coolfan at the dinner table but Juliette has discovered that you can pull the fan head off the metal holder and use it in your hand. She's been using it in the car on long journeys and there has been a lot less whingeing about it being too hot.

As a concerned mum (and because Juliette was now using it in a way it wasn't designed for), I did the ultimate safety test and, clenching my teeth, I stuck my finger in the whirring blades to see if they'd thought about the safety aspect. They had ! Zero pain and the soft foamy blades stopped turning instantaneously so there's no need to worry about little fingers getting chopped off !

It does seem to gobble up the batteries pretty quickly (it needs 2 AAA batteries but I was really pleased to see that batteries are included when it arrives) but that is probably due to the fact that Juliette has been using it almost non-stop to cool herself down and that we've been using cheapie unbranded batteries from the market !

I have to admit, I see it more as a fun gadget than as an absolutely indispensable piece of baby equipment but the kids love it. And I will own up - I've even used it for my myself when I made myself a bowl of porridge and got bored waiting for it to cool down before I could tuck in ! It does work really well and saves you time by allowing you to multitask while it does its job. And we all know how precious time is when you're a parent!

star rating : 4/5
RRP : £9.99

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